Niru Ratnam | The Guardianhttp://www.theguardian.com/profile/niruratnam
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A postcard from Miami art fairhttp://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/artblog/2006/dec/12/miamiartfair
The great and the good of the American and British art scenes gather in Florida for a right old knees-up.<p><img height="264" width="460" src="http://image.guardian.co.uk/sys-images/Arts/Arts_/Pictures/2006/12/12/miami460.jpg" alt="miami460.jpg" /><br /><span class="caption">Oh, I do like to be beside the CSIde. Photograph: Louis M Alvarez/AP</span></p><p>Miami art fair week is an odd hybrid. On the one hand there's the super-slick efficiency of the main fair, <a href="http://www.artbaselmiamibeach.com/ca/cc/ss/ ">Art Basel Miami</a> as well as Positions, its outpost on the beach for younger galleries. On the other hand there's the thrusting gaudiness of most of the other satellite fairs, the new breed of collectors that Miami attracts, and of course, the South Beach setting.</p> <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/artblog/2006/dec/12/miamiartfair">Continue reading...</a>Art and designTue, 12 Dec 2006 15:31:51 GMThttp://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/artblog/2006/dec/12/miamiartfairNiru Ratnam2006-12-12T15:31:51ZOn the vergehttp://www.theguardian.com/theobserver/2004/feb/29/features.magazine7
<p><strong>Who:</strong> Nicoline Van Harskamp<br /> <strong>What: </strong>Artist <br /> <strong>They say: </strong>'Nicoline does for security guards what Tom Stoppard did to nobodies in Rosencratz and Guildenstern Are Dead', Philip Dodd, Director, ICA<br /> <strong>We say:</strong> The rising star who's putting surveillance under the spotlight.</p><p>Twenty-eight-year-old Nicoline Van Harskamp's work fits right in with the art world's current interest in off-beat documentary and the revival of performance - the former seen in international jamborees such as Documenta and the Venice Biennale, the latter in recent major performance seasons at Tate Britain and the Whitechapel. Dutch-born Van Harskamp is researching a project on security guards for her contribution to the Beck's Futures award - the art world's answer to the Mercury Prize. 'Every week I discover a new type of guard. This week it was tree wardens in Richmond Park,' she explains. 'They look after the trees - especially those adopted by the public.'</p> <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/theobserver/2004/feb/29/features.magazine7">Continue reading...</a>Life and styleSun, 29 Feb 2004 01:28:18 GMThttp://www.theguardian.com/theobserver/2004/feb/29/features.magazine7Niru Ratnam2004-02-29T01:28:18Z20 big ideashttp://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2003/dec/28/healthandwellbeing
From sleeping at the office to scanning the brains of consumers, and from green-goo panic to helicopter parents... the next 12 months promises to bring a revolution in the way we work, rest and play. Here, in no particular order, we explain the thinking behind the jargon<p><strong>1. The well-slept society</strong></p><p><strong>Meaning?</strong></p> <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2003/dec/28/healthandwellbeing">Continue reading...</a>Health & wellbeingLife and styleWorld newsSun, 28 Dec 2003 11:22:00 GMThttp://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2003/dec/28/healthandwellbeingCorrina Dean, Chlo&euml; Diski, John Hind, Oliver James, Jim McClellan, Harvey McGavin, Niru Ratnam, Tom Templeton and Ian Tucker2003-12-28T11:22:00ZOn the vergehttp://www.theguardian.com/theobserver/2003/oct/12/features.magazine17
<p><strong>Who:</strong> Chris Taylor<br /><strong> What:</strong> Gallery owner<br /><strong> They say:</strong> 'Taylor appals and fascinates equally... like an effete aristocrat in the terminal throes of hereditary lunacy' The Guardian<br /><strong> We say:</strong> The shot in the arm the art world may need</p><p>It's easy to understand why people have such a hard time trying to pin Chris Taylor down. All of 24 years old, he's produced and directed for cable television, been a consultant for MTV and Sony Music Publishing, directed music videos, provided music for a Guinness ad, and he fronts Menlo Park, a band memorably described by Time Out as, 'Head-fuckingly different and plain entertaining.' And now he's opened an art gallery in the front room of his house in Shoreditch, east London.</p> <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/theobserver/2003/oct/12/features.magazine17">Continue reading...</a>Life and styleSat, 11 Oct 2003 23:53:55 GMThttp://www.theguardian.com/theobserver/2003/oct/12/features.magazine17Niru Ratnam2003-10-11T23:53:55ZOn the vergehttp://www.theguardian.com/theobserver/2003/aug/24/2
<p><strong>Name:</strong> Candice Breitz<br /><strong> What:</strong> Artist </p><p><strong> They say:</strong> 'Breitz's installations examine the language of global consumer culture, its banality, influence and unshakable power' - i-D magazine </p> <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/theobserver/2003/aug/24/2">Continue reading...</a>Life and styleSat, 23 Aug 2003 23:32:00 GMThttp://www.theguardian.com/theobserver/2003/aug/24/2Niru Ratnam2003-08-23T23:32:00ZOn the verge: Francis Upritchardhttp://www.theguardian.com/theobserver/2003/apr/06/features.magazine37
Francis Upritchard<p><strong>Who:</strong> Francis Upritchard<br /><strong> What:</strong> Artist <br /><strong>They say:</strong> 'Creepy, funny and with an eccentric pathos, Upritchard's latter-day relics display a love of the diligent but wonky' Frieze magazine<br /><strong> We say:</strong> Funny, scary, highly idiosyncratic art that's knowingly wrong</p><p> 'This is my favourite,' shrieks Francis Upritchard, pulling out a photo of a painting from the jumble of stuff in the basement of her north London squat. 'It's called Prince Charles - Wimpy Geek or Devil's Lynchpin? ' The painting is from the first show she had in England, entirely devoted to the internet conspiracy theory that Prince Charles is the Antichrist. 'It's something to do with his emblem, and his motto &quot;Ich dein&quot;, which means &quot;I serve.&quot; Here's another of him confronting the seven-winged beast,' says the 26-year-old artist, confusingly. But then, as she explains, 'I don't research because I don't want to get it right.' </p> <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/theobserver/2003/apr/06/features.magazine37">Continue reading...</a>Life and styleSat, 05 Apr 2003 23:08:09 GMThttp://www.theguardian.com/theobserver/2003/apr/06/features.magazine37Niru Ratnam2003-04-05T23:08:09ZHang it allhttp://www.theguardian.com/theobserver/2003/mar/09/features.magazine47
Art has changed. And so have the people running it. A sharp-minded breed of iconoclastic curators is revolutionising both the gallery scene and the way that we experience art. Niru Ratnam meets five of the new tastemakers<p>Curating art used to be a straightforward enough, if onerous, occupation. Typically, curators thoroughly versed in art history would use their research skills putting together what they saw as the best art works of a particular movement or historical period. For figures such as David Sylvester, curating wasn't really regarded as a major profession - more of a side show in the ongoing business of being an art authority. Things, however, have changed drastically since then. University courses in curating are springing up. And where once museums looked to the art historians of places such as the Courtauld Institute for the next generation of art supremos, they are now turning to something like the Royal College of Art's curating course, fast becoming the inside track for tomorrow's leading curators and museum directors. In turn, today's curators and museum directors have ditched anonymity.</p><p>'The curator of contemporary art is now concerned with the whole physical and intellectual experience of an exhibition,' explains Teresa Gleadowe, head of the RCA's curating course. Simply doing bucket-loads of art historical research is not enough. In the ground-breaking 1972 exhibition Documenta 5, Harald Szeemann - perhaps the first major freelance curator - dumped aesthetic categories and instead arranged the art through themes like 'Idea' and 'Individual Mythologies'.</p> <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/theobserver/2003/mar/09/features.magazine47">Continue reading...</a>Life and styleSun, 09 Mar 2003 01:29:27 GMThttp://www.theguardian.com/theobserver/2003/mar/09/features.magazine47Niru Ratnam2003-03-09T01:29:27ZThe best and brightest 2003: Kutlug Atamanhttp://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2002/dec/29/turnerprize2004.turnerprize
Talking is a form of rebellion for the Turkish-born filmmaker turned artist. Niru Ratnam meets the man who's got art taped<p>Kutlug Ataman's art is simple to make. He points his camera at people, and they talk. Sometimes they sing or visit the hairdresser, tend their prize-winning flowers or manually pleasure their boyfriends. But mostly they talk - poignant, torrential, hilarious and captivating monologues about themselves. 'It'll be a bit of a cacophony,' says Ataman of his upcoming first solo UK show at London's Serpentine Gallery. 'I've never had so much work in a single space.' He's momentarily worried but brightens when he remembers that most Serpentine visitors won't understand Turkish. 'They'll all be reading the subtitles anyway! But I'll put in lots of soundproofing just in case.'</p><p>And rum subtitles they are, too. Ataman's work features an eclectic bunch. There's legendary Turkish diva Semiha Berksoy, dressed outrageously though she's well into her eighties, recounting a life as epic as the operas she's starred in. And in 'Women Who Wear Wigs' - the piece that Ataman showed at his debut New York exhibition in February 2001 - four films are shown side by side featuring a wanted terrorist, a Turkish journalist, a Muslim student and a transsexual prostitute who all wear wigs. 'I only select people who are extensions of myself,' says Ataman. 'I'm drawn to people who broadcast who they are. I like to draw attention to the way identity is formed through talking.'</p> <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2002/dec/29/turnerprize2004.turnerprize">Continue reading...</a>Kutlug AtamanTurner prize 2004Turner prizeAwards and prizesArtArt and designUK newsCultureLife and styleSun, 29 Dec 2002 15:35:38 GMThttp://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2002/dec/29/turnerprize2004.turnerprizeNiru Ratnam2002-12-29T15:35:38Z